7:09 PM,
Feb. 24, 2014

Reno Mayor Bob Cashell cracks a joke at a press conference welcoming GreatCall to town last spring.

Written by

Anjeanette Damon
adamon@rgj.com

On one hand, Mayor Bob Cashell's announcements this month that he now backs gay marriage rights and medical marijuana dispensaries crept to the edge of confounding.

The 74-year-old former Texan is a Republican with a reputation for being a no-nonsense, pro-business deal closer with little time for hot-button social issues.

Like many of his cohorts in Reno's Republican business community, he strongly opposed the idea of dispensaries selling marijuana to card-holding patients on city streets. And marriage equality wasn't something he ever found himself that comfortable talking ...